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Bitcoin breaks $200

coinbase.com

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Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#121

Post by dwaltrip »

Permit wrote: post #71

Can't wait to see all the amateur investors wishing for an opportunity to short Bitcoin like we saw in Jan/February when it hit $60.00. https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%22short+bitco...

Silly hyped up bitcoiners. Let's totally short this virtual imaginary currency thing. I mean, just look at the graph! What goes up always comes down!

until it doesn't

Value is entirely subjective, all money is imaginary and built on a trust. For bitcoin, this means trust that the network is healthy, the protocol works, the transaction system is effective and has advantages to competing systems, and that others understand and share these thoughts. However, bitcoin also reduces the trust required in several areas (this is one of its advantages): chargebacks, control of your account (it is immensely difficult for third parties to seize bitcoins), and stability of the monetary policy (systemic incentives were designed to strongly resist manipulation of the algorithm, and seem to be working well so far).

Edit: This isn't to say bitcoin will go to the moon. It could very well fail for a number of reasons. However, it is also something that deserves careful consideration. It has shown surprising resilience. People are working hard at building augmenting systems. It is programmable money. The potential applications are hard to fully fathom.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#122

Post by TomGullen »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #72

Who wants to talk about china? Over the last few days the volume of transactions on btcchina has doubled. Gov run chinese media outlets have been surprisingly positive about btc. What is going on? One of the potential uses of btc is capital flight, and that is something that china has been incredibly strict about with their capital controls. Why aren't they clamping down? edit: some commentary from someone in china f…

I'd like to see Chinese wholesalers and manufacturers accepting Bitcoin for orders as I think this would be a huge positive indicator for Bitcoin. I think the incentive is there, cut out the middle men (banks) who charge exorbitant exchange rate and transfer fees and the customer/business can both save. This would possibly be the most meaningful utility for Bitcoin to date if it happens.

It's a pretty cutthroat and competitive industry from what I gather as well so Bitcoin could be interpreted as a creative way to be even more competitive.

If this does happen, hopefully the incentive to accept Bitcoin for orders would trickle down the supply chain as well.

The volatility is probably a problem though, if you're operating on narrow margins volatility might be an unacceptable risk unless you're able to come up with a process to sell them fast.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#123

Post by jaekwon »

Phlarp wrote: post #111
jaekwon wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is suggesting that Bitcoin will replace the USD (yet). For now, some people are going into Bitcoin because it cannot be confiscated. And govt default is correlated with crazy taxation measures. Take a look at what France is doing now.

>cannot be confiscated. Several internet drug lords would beg to differ.

Which ones? DPR's personal wallet is still intact.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#124

Post by TylerE »

Phlarp wrote: post #107
notahacker wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had a Bitcoin for every dotcom company that saw a >40x YoY increase in market cap that hasn't stayed around as long as the internet...

And yet I doubt any of these saw 40x YoY increases topping out at a $2.5 billion valuation.

Webvan got to something like $1.5b Broadcast.com sold to Yahoo for $5.7b

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#126

Post by socillion »

Datsundere wrote: post #94

I tried to buy bitcoins when they were $60. I look for sites that would sell me bitcoins for USD. It was so hard and the ways to buy them were so damn complicated. I had to sign up for a 3rd party site to import bitcoin to mtgox. The 3rd party site needed me to upload my personal identity information to verify my bank account. I was ready to do that as well, except they said it'd take 10+ days to verify. Also someone…

I tried buying bitcoins by going through Liberty Reserve. They got shut down the week after I transferred the money there, with the couple thousand I deposited still in the account since I wanted to wait for a good opportunity. It was some awful timing, I lost a hefty amount in transaction fees and now need to wait years for the LR court case to finish before having any chance of recovering my money.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#127

Post by ryanhuff »

qoo wrote: post #115
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #72

Who wants to talk about china? Over the last few days the volume of transactions on btcchina has doubled. Gov run chinese media outlets have been surprisingly positive about btc. What is going on? One of the potential uses of btc is capital flight, and that is something that china has been incredibly strict about with their capital controls. Why aren't they clamping down? edit: some commentary from someone in china f…

The Chinese will do anything to destabilize USD

Ridiculous. Why would the Chinese want to destabilize their biggest debtor?

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#128

Post by apw »

ap22213 wrote: post #55
csomar wrote: post #36

If anything to like about Bitcoin is that it has proved that almost everyone else is wrong. * SilkRoad shutting down? Bitcoin is doomed. * Mt.gox is not paying in time or at all? Bitcoin doesn't work. * Asics? There will be a flood of new coins. And yet Bitcoin value continue to raise. If history repeats itself, we should see 1 Bitcoin levels at around $2,000. I think Bitcoin is an interesting phenomena to watch. Bei…

It's not surprising that it's rising in value. People are holding on to ~12M coins (worth approx. $2.4B) and are hyping it up so that more people buy them. The more people that buy them, the more the price will go up, the more that they'll be worth, the more that people will buy them....

Do you have a source for this claim that 12 million coins are being hoarded?

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#129

Post by sktrdie »

Phlarp wrote: post #114
sliverstorm wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're sharp. That's exactly what I'm wondering right now. I think the answer is yes though.

My pet theory is that a good amount of the early coins are effectively "dead" with either the keys lost, brain wallets forgotten or the back-up USB keys long since formatted (or you know, you got arrested and the encrypted wallet is seized as evidence and revealing the key or otherwise moving the coins would basically be an admission of guilt) It's easy to set up triple redundant cold storage and promptly place multi…

Those are all risks that come with using Bitcoin. I'm sure with time we'll see lots of improvements. For now a good way to store coins is by using paper wallets: http://www.bitaddress.org/ -you can print them yourself using any printer. Some say your keys shouldn't even be on any computer until you're ready to use them.

But for the rest Bitcoin is like cash. You lose the key you lose the cash.

Re: Bitcoin breaks $200

#130

Post by mrb »

Datsundere wrote: post #94

I tried to buy bitcoins when they were $60. I look for sites that would sell me bitcoins for USD. It was so hard and the ways to buy them were so damn complicated. I had to sign up for a 3rd party site to import bitcoin to mtgox. The 3rd party site needed me to upload my personal identity information to verify my bank account. I was ready to do that as well, except they said it'd take 10+ days to verify. Also someone…

Sell something on craigslist for bitcoins, and let the buyer pay you in bitcoins in person. Couldn't be simpler.
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